Happy Birthday, Al Hirschfeld!

If Al Hirschfeld, the celebrated caricaturist were still around today, he would have been hitting his 107th birthday. As it is, however, the old boy passed away back in January 2003, just a few months shy of turning 100! Still, he had an amazing career drawing for many venues over his many decades, and was primarily associated with creating linear depictions of the Broadway shows for his regular

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Happy Birthday, Nancy Sinatra!

Today the gal with the boots celebrates her birthday. Nancy Sinatra was the first born of Frank's three kids and was very much Daddy's little girl. Though she may not have had the vocal range of her Dad, nor his singing career longevity, Nancy Sinatra was a hugely popular and iconic singer of the swingin' 60's. Interestingly, though she was ostensibly of the rock 'n' roll generation of that era,

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It's Quiz Time!!

I've been a member of the International Society of Caricature Artists (ISCA, formerly NCN) for a couple years now. One of my favourite of their online forums is the "Let's Draw" section, where we're now into a second year of celebrating famous birthdays by inviting ISCA members to post their caricature sketches of the chosen notable personality of the day. Some of the ones I've drawn have also

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Here's To Jessica Borutski!

This is my caricature of Jessica Borutski, a supremely talented young cartoonist whose work I have admired for several years now. Coincidentally, Jessica resides in Ottawa, Ontario, which also happens to be my old hometown. I first discovered Jessica's work on a cute animated film she created called I Like Pandas. In fact, I have shown samples of Jessica's art in my class on Character Design as

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Ricci Martin

A few weeks ago I put up a few pics taken on my vacation in Las Vegas with my Mom. We saw three shows while we were there, but only one of them I quite liked, the other two I found a bit disappointing. These were smaller shows, not featuring the big name headliners. Although in my opinion, Vegas headliners sure aren't what they used to be, as I really had no great inclination to see any of the

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Happy Birthday, Trini Lopez!

As should be quite apparent here by now, The Cartoon Cave is mostly about nostalgia: my personal recollections of a better era of entertainment. Back in the 1960s, Trini Lopez was one of the entertainers that helped define that era for me. Although my Dad was the one who usually had the records spinning on the family hi-fi, once in awhile my Mom would take control of it and play some of her

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Sheridan College Open House 2010 (Part 3)

Here is the third and final batch of caricatures I drew during Sheridan's Open House a couple weeks ago. These first two ladies pictured are Sheridan office staff, Susan Anderson-Wilcox and Paulette Geffros:These last three are Sheridan students, Leisha-Marie Riddel, Omar Noori, and Hai Wei Hou:

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Sheridan College Open House 2010 (Part 2)

Here are another bunch of caricatures from the Sheridan Open House held a couple weeks ago. Mostly young kids in this batch, including these first two little cuties who are the daughters of one of the Sheridan staff. I've still got more to post but I'll do them later.

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Gordon Brown For PM!!

Yeah, I know that the Brits have already been to the polls to vote, but it turns out there's still no clear winner. Conservative David Cameron may have had the most votes, but not enough to make a clean sweep of it, so sitting PM Gordon Brown still has a chance at keeping his job. Well I say good on Gordo! If it was up to me, I think the Brits should keep him in power. Despite this dour Scot

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Happy Birthday, Audrey Hepburn!

I believe that Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe may be the two most iconic figures who have represented female beauty in the movies. But, while Marilyn was blonde, voluptuous and an image of pure sexuality, Audrey was the more fragile, doe-eyed waif who really captured our hearts. Certainly Audrey Hepburn has always been my favourite actress, and much of her appeal is in that pixieish figure

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Sheridan College Open House 2010 (Part 1)

A week after classes have officially ended, there's still two events that wrap up the school year at Sheridan College. There is the annual Industry Day, where representatives from various animation studios, both local and from the U.S. come to view the films created by the graduating 4th Year students. I'll defer to my colleague, Mark Mayerson to describe that event in greater detail on his

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Happy Birthday, Genevieve Bujold!

Today is the birthday of Genevieve Bujold, one of Canada's most celebrated actresses from Montreal, Quebec. Genevieve first gained great acclaim portraying Anne Boleyn in the 1969 film, Anne of the Thousand Days, opposite Richard Burton as King Henry VIII. I drew this caricature for the ISCA forum where members draw the celebrity of the day as determined by their birthday. As it happens, July

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Sheridan Animation Year End

Yes, as April draws to a close, so too does this year of the Sheridan College Animation program. The last few weeks are always pretty crazy, with students trying to stay on top of last assignment deadlines and we in the faculty going bug-eyed from all of the final grading! But now it's done and everybody can breathe a collective sigh of relief and start enjoying the spring and summer weather to

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Fun With Photoshop

Have you ever noticed how much teenybopper sensation Justin Bieber looks like that poster child of the checkout aisle tabloids, Bat Boy? This interesting revelation hit me recently when I saw this caricature by John Kricfalusi of the mop-topped little knucklehead. It immediately put me in mind of Bat Boy, who I believe is currently still on his mission of helping the U.S. military hunt down Osama

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Happy Birthday, James Garner!

Yes, I've celebrated his birthday for the last couple of years on this blog and I aim to keep on doing it. Jim Garner remains my all-time favourite actor and I never get tired of watching his many great film roles and sketching my impressions of him. For this year's caricature, I watched The Great Escape, the classic WWII film from 1963, which was based on the true story of a POW prison breakout.

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Remember The Alamo, And Fess Parker Too

Sadly, early today we lost Fess Parker, the actor who brought the character of Davy Crockett to life for Walt Disney. The role originated on Disney's Sunday night show and became a huge overnight hit, leading to Fess Parker becoming a major cult hero to the generation of kids who first watched the made-for-TV movie that was shown in 3 weekly installments. The film also led to an unexpected demand

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Happy Birthday, Judd Hirsch!

I haven't had time to take this to a more finished version, so here is a pencil sketch of Judd Hirsch, perhaps most famous for his role in TV's Taxi. This was primarily drawn for the ISCA (formerly NCN), the International Society of Caricature Artists, for the ongoing daily celebrity birthday forum, where all the members can draw their version of a celebrity who is chosen for each day. Admittedly

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Happy Birthday, David Niven!

Were David Niven still with us today, he'd be celebrating his 100th birthday! This debonair actor has long been one of my favourites, perhaps because I've always had a soft spot for the Brits, due to my own British parentage. I think he was also one of a handful of actors whom I was familiar with at a fairly early age. Although I would have been too young to have seen him in 1963's The Pink

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James MacArthur

I was very sad to hear yesterday of the death of James MacArthur. He had appeared in Disney's Swiss Family Robinson, one of the loveliest of that studio's live-action films, but of course he will be best remembered as Detective Danny Williams on TV's long-running Hawaii Five-0. Coincidentally, I have been avidly watching the DVD boxed sets of that great series just recently over the last few

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Happy Birthday, Wendy Liebman!

Some time back I wrote a post in reference to a documentary called The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story, which was all about the longtime Disney songwriting team, Bob and Dick Sherman. The documentary was created by cousins, Jeff and Greg Sherman, the sons respectively of Bob and Dick. While the doc covered much of their wonderful songwriting legacy, it was also notable for its rather shocking

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